If you are new to playing Starlancer online, please take a couple minutes to read this post. It will save you a lot of trouble in the future.

This is a place to post things we have noticed in the game to help new gamers and spead important info around. Most of this guide is dedicated to exposing and fixing Starlancer's: glitches, shortcomings, and other player-created problems. Please reply with any new info, and I will add it to the list.

SETTING UP A GAME

When you first connect to gamespy and are brought to the lobby, wait 3-5 seconds for any games to load. If you start your own game instantly, you could miss any rooms that already have people in them.

The person who creates the game is the host and will have control over the game options such as turning on/off: targeting, turrets, and teams.

If the host of the game leaves, he cannot get back even if he restarts the dreamcast.
Other players can leave the game and come back, as long as the original host is still there.
If the host leaves, anybody else who leaves cannot get back to the same game.

In the lobby chat, you get 16 characters including spaces.

Most of the time a game will seem to malfunction after 45-60 minutes of play in the same game. Some indications the game is malfunctioning are: When you try to chat, the letters are not there, but it looks like you entered something, and powerups stop working. In Nuclear Threat, the beacons will begin moving in a repeating loop.

To remedy a malfunctioning game, follow these easy steps. First, have someone who is not the host of the current game leave that game by pressing "Start" and choosing "Exit." This person will be returned to the game lobby. Exit that game by pressing "B" on the controller and you will be taken to the list of online games. You should be able to see the game you just left. Simply start a new game and name it something different than the first game (to avoid confusion). Instruct the other players in the game to wait 30 seconds (after that first person left to start a new game) to leave and join the new game. The last person to leave the original game should be the host. If you follow these simple steps (that can be done in less than a minute), hopefully nobody will get lost.

Turrets. Turrets, in my experience, can cause more harm than good. The biggest problem is that they are a direct cause of lag. Even a historically stable connection can lag with turrets turned on. The severity of the lag increases with the amount of players. If there are 2-4 players, the lag wont be so bad, but with 5-6 players, it can be nearly impossible to play at times (especially when all the players are clustered in the same area). If you really want to play with turrets, use some judgement about the quality of each player's connection and how many people will be playing.

GAMEPLAY TIPS

If your ship has onboard EMP, it is not as easy as just leaving the thing on as soon as you hear a missile coming (in the single player campaign, as soon as you flip on EMP, the missile loses the lock). You need to time the best moment to turn it on. The best time seems to be when it's closing in, flip it on, and do a hard-fast maneuver. Hopefully the missile will lose it's lock.

Once you fire a missile, you must keep the target lock or the missile explodes before hitting the target.

When you have mines, you can deploy multiple mines by quickly and repeatedly hitting the deploy button. This does not work for the host.

Missiles can be fired without a target lock. They will only go straight.

Powerups have an approximate 15-20 second "rotation" and all powerups are on the same rotation. It explains why everybody seems to get missiles or cloaks at the same time.

When you have the invincibility powerup, you can fly through mines undamaged. Same goes for missiles.
I have never tried invincibility as somebody sets off a nuke or let the Dark Reign fire, although I expect it wouldn't help. If you get the chance to try out either of those, please do it and report the results.

Nuke Threat
You must fly through the center ring without being destroyed for the nuke to be activated.

The beacons and the rings can be targetted under the "Friendlies" target list.

Tag Bomb
It takes more than one direct hit to pass the bomb. There is no exact number, and it may change depending on your ship and the speed of your connection.

If you have a bad connection or you are lagging, it is difficult if not impossible to pass the bomb. You may shoot a player 45 times before it passes and you may even blow them up without passing it.

Dark Reign
The communications device can be targetted under the friendlies list.

There are two ways to escape fire from the Dark Reign. 1. Fly as fast and as far away from it. 2. Fly towards it and dance around it until it loses lock.
Bonus: 3. Get a cloak powerup (highly unlikely)
Better Bonus: Kill the person with the communications device and take it.

Teams
When teams are turned on, there is absolutely no way to hurt one of your teammates. You can shoot them and ram them all you want. Neither of you will take damage.

You can shoot a missile at your teammate and it wont even scratch them.

If anyone on your team deploys mines, you can fly though them without taking damage (even if you put down those mines yourself)

The following needs to be confirmed with a second test:
MINES ARE USELESS WITH TEAMS TURNED ON. Both teammates and opponents can fly though any mine without taking damage. Again, this needs more testing, and will replace the line above it if trure.

Last edited by Mertens on Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:00 am; edited 29 times in total

Just my own observations. Sometimes I would fly through a pack of three powerups and get nothing, but when I turned around and went back, I got one. I know it is a low number a lot less than 50% or 33%.

Quote:

Well..this actually depends on the speed of your LINE. As soon as I fly through the rings, it will set off.

That's interesting. I once destroyed someone as they were coming out of the rings. I know they were leaving because when I flew to get the powerups, I set off the Nuke a fraction of a second later. If I had destroyed them before they got through the rings, I would have had to turn around or hit my reverse thrusters. Maybe this was a fluke.

Also, when I fly through the rings, I can switch to my rear camera and watch the Nuke explode after I have cleared the rings.

It's probably just me if it doesn't happen for anyone else.

I added a few more things to the bottom of the list before Nuke Strike

_________________Starlancer players, please check out
Also, please read THIS to have a better online experience.

Another good way to watch the nuke is to target the rings with hold x then press y (target friendly) and when the rings are targeted, switch to the target cam. those nuke explosions are great. also, this works great for hunt the shadow, just target the base in the middle of the arena, and use the target cam, and it will pan around the base giving you a great view of the whole area.

Another good way to watch the nuke is to target the rings with hold x then press y (target friendly) and when the rings are targeted, switch to the target cam. those nuke explosions are great. also, this works great for hunt the shadow, just target the base in the middle of the arena, and use the target cam, and it will pan around the base giving you a great view of the whole area.

good to know.

_________________"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it." -- H.L. Mencken

I want this game but never can find it ... I hate late release online DC games (which are like the only ones left) they were made in limited numbers and are so hard to find ... not only that but I have a new game online rule so that really cuts my hopes of getting these games